US investment bank Jefferies has made two more senior hires to its equities division following the appointment of UBS’s former head of equity distribution in the Americas, which came to light earlier this week.

Bill Bell, a former global head of equities electronic distribution at Barclays, has left the UK bank to take up a similar role at Jefferies, according to two people familiar with the situation.

He is to join Jefferies in a similar role, following a period of gardening leave, the people said.

Bell first joined Barclays in 2008, and before that he spent 15 years at Lehman Brothers, most recently as its head of equities electronic distribution for the Americas.

The bank has also hired Frank Copplestone as its global head of equity structured products, one person familiar with the situation said. He had worked at Jefferies on a consulting basis since late last year, the person said, and prior to that he was at Morgan Stanley

The new hires are set to join Jefferies after a strong fiscal quarter in equities for the US investment bank. The bank announced in mid-March that equities revenues had increased to $188.8 million in the three months ending February 28, up from $167.4 million during the same period a year earlier.

Jefferies' chairman and chief executive Richard Handler said in a statement at the time: “Our results reflect another strong performance in investment banking, with revenues in excess of $400 million for the second successive quarter, and a solid performance in both equities and fixed income.”